Judge Considers an Inquiry On Radio Case Confession

By BENJAMIN WEISER

Published: June 29, 2002

A federal judge in Manhattan is considering opening an inquiry into how the F.B.I. got a criminal confession from an innocent Egyptian student who was detained in connection with the attack on the World Trade Center, people with knowledge of the case said.

The judge, Jed S. Rakoff, of Federal District Court, could conduct the inquiry under a rarely invoked authority in which judges are considered supervisors of the grand jury. It was during the grand jury investigation of the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the issue of the false confession arose.

The judge has held a series of closed preliminary hearings on the matter, which is also being looked at by the United States attorney's office in Manhattan.

The tale of the student, Abdallah Higazy, remains one of the oddest episodes of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Mr. Higazy was arrested in December 2001 as a material witness in the terrorism investigation, after a security guard at the Millenium Hilton Hotel, in Lower Manhattan, said an aviation radio was found in the safe in Mr. Higazy's room, which had a view of the World Trade Center.

Mr. Higazy spent a month in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, but was released after the security guard admitted making up the story.

During his first three weeks in custody, Mr. Higazy protested his innocence and volunteered to take a polygraph test. During the test, administered by an F.B.I. agent, however, he confessed to owning the radio, and gave various stories as to how he had obtained it, the authorities have said.

The confession fueled suspicions that Mr. Higazy might be tied to the hijackers. The radio could have been used to communicate with a plane in flight, and Mr. Higazy had also once worked in the Egyptian Air Corps, where he repaired radios that were used to communicate with people on the ground.

On the advice of his lawyer, Mr. Higazy will say little about the circumstances of his confession. He does not make any allegations of physical abuse, but in a telephone interview recently, he said that after he was left alone for several hours with the F.B.I. agent, he was ready to say anything.

''I hyperventilated,'' he said. ''I couldn't breathe. I felt I was going to faint. I wanted out of that room any possible way.''

He said his lawyer, Robert S. Dunn, was told to stand outside the door. Mr. Dunn said that when the F.B.I. agent emerged from the room, he said Mr. Higazy had not completed the polygraph test, but had admitted owning the radio.

''He said, 'Well, we don't have a polygraph, but we have a confession,' '' said Mr. Dunn, who added that he went in and asked Mr. Higazy about the agent's report. He said Mr. Higazy replied: '' 'This guy's got me so upset that I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I'm not sure what I said, but I believe I did admit to having the radio. But it's a lie.' ''

Mr. Dunn said he is limited in what he can say about the inquiry. ''The matter is still pending before Judge Rakoff,'' Mr. Dunn said. ''One of the issues that remains under consideration is how it is that a false confession came to be extracted from Mr. Higazy.''

Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and the prosecutor's office would not comment on the inquiry.

After the confession, Mr. Higazy was charged with lying, based on his earlier denials. The criminal complaint does not mention the confession, but a prosecutor cited it in successfully asking a magistrate that Mr. Higazy be jailed without bail -- just days before he was released.

The prosecutor told the magistrate that Mr. Higazy ''admitted ownership of the radio, but told three different versions of how he came into possession of the radio.

''So this is not somebody who can be deemed trustworthy,'' the prosecutor said.

Mr. Higazy was released on Jan. 16 after the owner of the radio, a private pilot, came forward to claim it, and the security guard was reinterviewed and admitted he had lied. The charge against Mr. Higazy was dropped.

The guard, Ronald Ferry, was sentenced last month to weekends in prison for six months.

Shortly after Mr. Higazy was set free, Judge Rakoff is believed to have begun the hearings.